Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Mix of unit size?

[Nancy Baumeister (nancybee]

Sharon hit it right on for our community.

Our smallest is a 2 bedroom. If we had built 1 bedrooms there would be interest 
but the banks and architects probably drove that decision. I know I would like 
to downsize from the 1000 sf 2 bedroom that I live in- 675 sf sounds nice. Or 
actually what I would almost prefer is a shared kitchen/bath arrangement with 
private space for 2-3 bedroom/livingroom sets. My understanding is that the 
kitchen/bath part is the expensive part to build while bedrooms don't add that 
much extra cost.

We were all sold at completion of construction.

The general picture:
Four 4 -bedroom: currently occupied mostly by couples who use the extra space as 
offices.
Fourteen 3-bedrooms: occupied by 1 to 4 people
Sixteen 2-bedrooms: occupied by 1-2 people

Sales since move-in fall 2007):
One 2 BR internal trade fr a 3 BR (growing family)
One 2 BR outside the community
One 3 BR outside the community
One 3BR by community member upsizing from 2 BR (growing family).

I think it is true that small is not a stopper for folks who want to live in 
community.  They will figure out how to live in the small space or plan on 
getting more space as it becomes available.

I am interested in this general theme of house size becuase I think that as 
climate change and peak oil become increasin burdensome people will start 
compacting into smaller spaces.


--
Nancy Baumeister
CoHoEcovillage.org
www.flickr.com/photos/nancybeetoo/tags/